A safari from BikeTours.com will offer travelers an opportunity to see Namibia’s wildlife from two perches: the saddle of a bicycle and a chartered train.
The 13-day, 12-night journey, which debuts next summer, departs from Windhoek and includes the Fish River Canyon in the south as well as Etosha National Park in the north. Adventurers will pedal through the Namib Desert, where “dunes can reach as high as several hundred feet,” said Jim Johnson, the founder of Bike Tours Direct. A popular stop is Dune 45, a 525-foot-tall formation from five-million-year-old sand blown from the Kalahari Desert.
The biking component will vary between 19 and 25 miles each day, after which participants will board the Desert Express for overnighters or stay in lodges along the way. The train journey covers 90 percent of Namibia’s available rail route and will feature local game as well as cuisine that reflects the country’s German colonial and Dutch heritage, such as “braaivleis” or barbecue-style cooking. Travelers will also get to talk with one of the country’s major conservation leaders, John Kasaona.
The safari, Aug. 8 to 20 in 2016, is $5,118 a person, excluding airfare.